The Girl From the Never Realm (l.garmadon)

Eleven

We passed through several more corridors, and I was half-convinced Grimfax was just leading us around in circles.

"You're sure he isn't watching us?" Lloyd asked, for what must've been the tenth or so time.

"Like I said," Grimfax's tone made it seem like if the green ninja was to ask that one more time, he'd chuck him headfirst into the frosty walls. "If he were watching the Crystal, we wouldn't have gotten this far."

We turned yet another corner— I'd lost count of how many at this point.

I was looking down at my sore feet, so I didn't notice when we stopped. I ran right into Lloyd's back.

But before I could apologize or even feel embarrassed, I heard a familiar sneer.

"You were saying?" Vex asked.

My heart skipped a bear. We'd run smack into a battalion of Blizzard Samurai. Vex laughed, and his henchmen grinned, like they couldn't wait to use their ice weapons to chop up two Formlings, a ninja, and another Samurai. In all fairness, they probably were looking forward to it. More than I was, anyway.

Grimfax slung his ice axe into his hands, and Kataru shifted to bear form. I didn't have a weapon, aside from my talons, and I didn't think those would do much good against literal ice warriors.

"Run!" Grimfax told Lloyd.

Lloyd shook his head. "We have to stay together and-"

"No!" Grimfax insisted. "You must awaken your friend or all is lost! We will hold them back as long as we can! Go!"

He shoved Lloyd and me towards another corridor, which I guessed led to the throne room. Kataru charged the Blizzard Samurai, with Grimfax following soon after.

Lloyd grabbed my hand. "C'mon, Y/n. We've gotta hurry."

He didn't need to tell me twice. I heard Bear-Kataru roaring and Grimfax yelling war cries as we turned and sprinted towards the throne room. I didn't dare look back, and neither did Lloyd, who kept a tight hold on my hand as we fled.

As we turned into another hall, we were met by four more Blizzard Samurai and their spears. Lloyd quickly released my hand and threw on a green hood-slash-mask, covering his entire face except for his eyes. He summoned a sphere of green light, which he hurled at one of the Samurai, knocking him out upon impact. Then he spun into a tornado of green light, kind of like the one he'd had before, except this time, he didn't fly. He launched himself at the remaining three Samurai.

Whoa. I couldn't help but stare. I'd never seen someone fight like that before-

More running footsteps approaching yanked me rather rudely out of my thoughts. Four more Samurai were running towards us from behind.

With Lloyd busy taking down the first ones, I shifted into falcon form and flew up to the ceiling before diving at one of the approaching Samurai, aiming for his eyes. My talons struck their target, and with one good rip, the man shattered into ice. Seeing their comrade get literally torn apart, the other two slowed, but I was already planning my next attack. Two seconds later, my talons tore out another's throat, but before I could deal with the third, he was tackled by Lloyd's green tornado and reduced to a pile of ice shards on the floor.

Lloyd turned back to his human self, and we kept running.

"Is that your form?" I asked as we went. I didn't know how I had the energy to talk and run at the same time, but I did, apparently. "I've never seen someone's form be a tornado before."

Lloyd laughed. He didn't even seem to be out of breath, or even tired at all. "No. It's called spinjitzu. It's a fighting technique. My elemental power is energy."

"Your what?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but then grabbed my hand again, making me halt running.

"The throne room should be right behind those doors," he whispered as we ducked behind an ice stalagmite.

I peeked out over the ice and towards the doors.

The doors that two battalions of Blizzard Samurai were marching straight towards.

Vex wasn't there with them, so I doubted these were the same warriors that Grimfax and Kataru had stayed behind to fight. That was the good news— our allies might still be up and kicking. But the bad news was, there was no way Lloyd and I could sneak past them and into the Ice Emperor's chamber.

"I'll distract them," I hissed. "You get inside and awaken your friend."

Before he could protest, or even agree, I shifted into falcon form and flew in a circle above the warriors' heads, letting out the loudest screech I could. Once all their attention was on me, I flew in the opposite direction, away from the throne room's doors. I dive-bombed them a couple times, raking out eyes and throats and leaving behind very artistic piles of shattered ice as I led both of the battalions away from Lloyd's position.

I only hoped he got through undetected.